Rice is great if you’re really hungry and want to eat two thousand of something

Posted on Feb 4th, 2019

by Sergio Varela

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Rice is seed and a type of cereal coming from two sister plants Oryza sativa (Asia) and Oryza glamberrima (Africa). It is one of the main characters in the daily diet in half of the world, in continents like Asia, South and Central America.

Very short history

Rice as we know (in its version long and short) came from Asia to Europe thanks to the Persians. In the 8th century, it arrived in Spain and later in Sicily. During the 16th and 17th century rice was introduced in America by Spanish and Portuguese and from then exploited in the continent.

Kinds of Rice

Rice has more than 10000 different varieties and they can be categorized into two subspecies of Oryza sativa:

Indica, long in shape and with a high quantity of amylose starch.
Japonica, shorter in shape, stickier rice with less quantity of amylose starch.

Common Categories

In supermarkets, it easy to find these types of rice

Type	Starch	Additional Info	Proportion water to rice when cooking	Country of Origin\/Uses
Long-grain	High amylose (~22%)		1.4 to 1 by volume	China and India
Medium-grain	Medium amylose (~15-17%)		1.2 to 1 by volume	Spanish Paella, Italian Risotto
Short-grain	Medium amylose (~15-17%)		1 to 1 by volume	North China, Japan and Korea
Sticky rice	Amylopectin		0.8 to 1 by volume	Laos and North Thailand
Aromatic	Same as long\/medium grain.			Pakistan and India
Pigmented	Same as long\/medium grain	Rice with bran layers rich in pigments
Brown rice	Same as its original	Rice with its bran, germ, and aleurone layers intact.
Parboiled	Same as its original	Rice that has been precooked. Its starch is hardened, making it less sticky when being cooked again. Nutty flavour		India and Pakstan